The Avatar and the Alchemist
by Tanhalin
Summary: A new Avatar finds herself in the world of Fullmetal Alchemist - when she runs into Edward Elric, adventure ensues. They have many barriers to overcome (including blindness and language), but the Avatar is there for a reason. Now it's up to her to learn what it is.
1. Chapter 1

Edward Elric was out for a walk when he ran into her.

Well, technically, she'd run into him. The girl was dashing down the street, panting, ice-white hair flying behind her. She looked back and ran straight into Ed, knocking them both down.

"Watch it!" the alchemist shouted.

The girl popped back up with a strange motion. An icy wind swirled around them, lifting her hair away from her sweaty face. She panted something – an apology, he thought.

Ed nodded, transfixed by her eerie silver eyes, aimed just below his own. "That's okay." He didn't know why he was forgiving her so easily. She just – she had said _something_, he didn't know what, and he could already sense the innocence rolling off her. He pushed himself up, retrieving the glove that had flown off his automail hand.

She spun around, falling into something that looked like a fighting stance. Ed listened – yes, there were footsteps, coming around the corner –

The girl kicked out as her pursuer raced into view.

Ed had just a moment to think that she was much too far away to do anything before the blast of fire blinded him. He stumbled and fell again. Enemy reduced to a smoking ruin, the girl bent over him. She whispered something unintelligible.

Then she ran off.

* * *

><p>"Colonel Mustang!" Ed swung into Roy Mustang's office with an insolent grin. The colonel sighed and put down his paperwork.<p>

"What now, Fullmetal?"

The boy came in and took the chair in front of Mustang's desk, swinging it around and resting his arms on the back. "Have there been any reports of unauthorized immigrants?"

The colonel felt his face settle into a deep frown. "There are always reports of unauthorized immigrants."

The Fullmetal Alchemist waved his hand. "I know that. I meant strange ones – really noticeable ones. A girl, sixteen – seventeen maybe, white hair, silvery eyes. Someone like that can't hide for too long, right?" Metal clinked against wood as Elric tapped his automail fingers against the chair.

Mustang rubbed his chin, relishing the new challenge. He hadn't heard any reports of a girl like the boy was describing, but he supposed he could always ask Riza to keep an eye out. "Any other distinguishing features?"

"Besides the hair and eyes?"

"Yes. Besides the hair and eyes."

Elric glanced around nervously, then leaned forward, intent on the colonel. "She shoots fire."

Colonel Mustang couldn't keep his eyebrow from creeping up. The Fullmetal boy knew full well that the colonel was the Flame Alchemist. With the amount of time they had worked together, surely the boy would be used to explosions.

Seeing the doubt on his face, Elric hurried to explain further. "Not like you, sir. I don't think that there's any alchemy involved. She just kicked out, and – _bam_."

The Flame Alchemist's brow furrowed.

"I will find out what I can."

Elric stood and spun the chair back around, then bowed. "Thank you, sir."

* * *

><p>A little over a week later, Lieutenant Colonel Maes Hughes pored over a newspaper article detailing the fascinatingly gory details of a murder. It was the article's title that had caught his attention: UPSTANDING CITIZEN TORCHED! The body had been found charred to a crisp, seemingly caught in the action of running. Only a rogue State Alchemist, the writer asserted, would be able to cause such a rapid demise.<p>

Hughes wasn't so sure; his friend Roy Mustang had asked him to keep an eye out for something like this. The article claimed that someone with long white hair had been spotted fleeing the scene. Roy's description pertained to a girl (young, perhaps seventeen) with long white hair. A girl who, coincidentally enough, could shoot fire.

Wasn't that interesting?

Hughes stood up and went to go on a search.

* * *

><p>It was Riza who found her, huddled in an alleyway, flame tucked in her palm. It had been three weeks since her encounter with Edward, and she looked gaunt, lost, and terrified. Riza had made sure to keep her hands far from her gun as she entered the alley.<p>

The girl seemed to see this as more threatening, though, and had moved as if to shoot fire at Riza. It had only been when Riza had dropped her arms to her side that the girl had relaxed. As the lieutenant had approached her, the girl had shied away – not fast enough to hide her weakness, though. Her hair was knotted and filthy, and her icy eyes seemed unable to focus.

Riza swore silently and scooped her up.

* * *

><p>Ayonn woke up in a hospital.<p>

Well, that was what it smelled like, in any case, and what she could feel through the thickly padded bed seemed to support the assumption. People walked briskly around her, pushing something with four wheels and a bed on top. Some were nervous, some were calm, some were dead or dying – could they tell? Ayonn wondered. Was it obvious to anyone else that the pulses of the nearly-gone were flagging?

She reached over her head in search of metal. There – her fingers touched the steel support of the bed. Everything was clearer, not as muffled by the mattress and blankets. Ayonn noted with fascination how much better she felt.

Someone approached her bed. Ayonn gripped the pole, listening intently for anything the metal could tell her. Whoever was coming toward her was a woman, tall-ish, with a long coat on. Her stride seemed almost military in nature. And what was that thing on her hip? Metal, clearly, but Ayonn couldn't fathom any use for such an oddly shaped object.

The woman sat in a conveniently placed chair next to Ayonn's bed. Ayonn rolled to face the woman and opened her eyes. It didn't do any good for her, of course, but she'd found it made other people more comfortable. The woman leaned forward.

She said _something_, Ayonn knew. It was _what_ she'd said that was unclear. Ayonn decided to try communicating herself. "Where am I?"

The lack of response was enough for her to know that the barrier went both ways. She gave it another shot, resorting to the basic point-and-name method of speech. Laying a hand on her chest, Ayonn said, carefully and slowly, "Ayonn."

The woman nodded. Everyone else was hitting the floor hard enough that these small vibrations were coming through with an amazing amount of detail. There was something to be gained from heavy traffic. The woman pointed to herself and enunciated. "Lieutenant Riza Hawkeye."

It was the strangest name Ayonn had ever heard. There was one more basic fact that she had to get out of the way, though. She pointed to her eyes and shook her head, then closed the lids just to demonstrate. "I'm blind," she whispered, knowing the woman wouldn't understand. "I'm blind."


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: **I realized that I forgot to include a disclaimer last time, so: I do not own Avatar or FMA. As much as I wish I did, I don't. And for those of you who are curious, Ayonn speaks Japanese due to Avatar's Asian culture and the fact that Japanese is the only Asian language I know. In FMA, things are written in English, so I thought it made more sense to have them speak English all the time.

* * *

><p>Lieutenant Hawkeye fell into step beside her superior officer. Colonel Mustang didn't break stride as he asked, "Well?"<p>

He was genuinely curious about the girl, he realized with surprise. She interested him in a way few others did – as a new puzzle to be solved, another challenge to overcome. He'd never even met her.

"She doesn't speak our language," his lieutenant said. "It isn't Ishvalan, either. Her name is Ayonn." Hawkeye hesitated before delivering the last piece of news. "She's blind."

Mustang stopped. Blind – he hadn't even considered that she might be handicapped. He had simply been focused on finding her. She was more of a puzzle than a person.

He spun on his heel.

"I want to go see her."

She looked so frail, lying in the pristine bed. The girl was just a waif. Her hair was clean and brushed, if near-invisible against the white sheets. But she sat up as he approached – almost as if she could see him coming. He stood at the end of her bed and tucked his hands behind his back.

_"__Suwatte kudasai,"_ she said, gesturing to the chair. Lieutenant Hawkeye was right – the words coming out of her mouth belonged to no language he knew. He shook his head, and she shrugged.

"Are you sure she's blind?" he hissed. Riza nodded.

Now that he looked more closely, he saw that her eyes didn't flit around the room. She didn't react to expressions. He tapped his foot on the ground. She cocked her head.

Either she was blind or extremely adept at faking it.

She stared up at the ceiling. _"Hoshiimono wo itte,"_ she murmured. _"Matawa watashi wa naru mama ni."_ Turning over, she expressed her disinterest in the clearest way possible.

Snubbed by a blind girl.

Mustang left.

* * *

><p>Edward was thrilled, for some strange reason, to hear that the mysterious girl was being released from the hospital. He was even happier to hear that he would be in charge of her while she was at headquarters. He told Al everything he knew about her, down to the recently-learned fact that she was blind.<p>

When she came up the stairs that first day, he ran down them to take her hand. She brushed him off but smiled anyway. He knew she wasn't offended.

The first interesting thing was when she stopped and rapped the wall with her knuckles. She tilted her head, eyes going wide, then pivoted to face Al. She pointed at him. _"Karappo,"_ she whispered.

Ed laid her hand in Al's. "Al," he said slowly.

"_Konnichiwa,_ Al." She placed her hand on her chest. "Ayonn."

The second was when she tried to explain what had so startled her. _"Karappo,"_ she insisted, pointing toward Al. When Ed shrugged, trying to say that he didn't understand, she huffed and stormed off. He followed her. She moved through the compound like she had been born there, like she knew exactly what she was looking for and where to find it. She walked into the mess hall and picked up a cup, holding it out to show Edward. _"Karappo."_

He looked at it, then laid his hand on top of hers, indicating the cup. "Cup."

She shook her head. _"Un, kappu."_ She closed her eyes for a moment, then walked over to the sink. She made a strange motion with her hands and water poured out – just a little stream, enough to fill the cup. The girl pushed the full cup toward him. _"Furu."_

"Yes, it's full," Ed said impatiently. Was she hurt in the head?

"Full, _un,_" the girl said. _"Ima_–" She poured the water out. _"Karappo."_

Ed nodded, thrilled at the breakthrough, forgetting she couldn't see him. "You mean empty!"

She cocked her head.

He slowed his words down. "Empty."

She nodded. _"Karappo."_

How had she known that Al was empty? he wondered. Most people couldn't tell unless his helmet was knocked off. The girl was strange, but insightful.

Ed wondered suddenly if he should be afraid of her.

* * *

><p>Ayonn had known instantly that something was off when she felt the metal suit. At first, she pegged it as a decoration…and then it had moved. Moreover, the boy she had run into had introduced her. "Al," he had called it. She had introduced herself in return, then tried to point out to the short boy that the Al suit was empty. Ayonn wasn't familiar with the rules of this place, but she was fairly sure that bending the metal away was bad manners anywhere.<p>

She had explored the complex with the boy and the Al suit – well, once she'd stormed off to find a cup. _Empty_ was a simple concept. The boy shouldn't have had so much trouble with it. She'd been forced to demonstrate empty and full. In his defense, he'd understood once she'd used the cup.

This was such a strange place. Metal suits walked and talked and no one seemed to think it odd; no one spoke the same language she did. No one was a bender.

No one seemed to realize she was the Avatar.

When the Lieutenant woman arrived to take her back into custody, Ayonn bowed her head and went. She liked Lieutenant, after all, and the woman had been nothing but kind to her. In addition, her heart beat and her pulse was even – Lieutenant was substantial. Not like the Al suit, which had deeply unnerved her.

Lieutenant didn't drop Ayonn in a cell. Instead, she guided her to a Satomobile and placed her in the backseat. Ayonn hated Satomobiles (everything moved too quickly, and if you focused on the vibrations you got sick), but she didn't think this was the right time to mention that. Instead, she focused on bending a small flame in her palm, trying to make ripples she could feel in the air.

The Satomobile jolted to a stop. Lieutenant got out, and Ayonn extinguished her flame. She rapped the wall next to her and listened to the vibrations, then found the door handle and climbed out. She nearly missed hitting Lieutenant in the face.

Lieutenant took a firm hold on her arm and walked her up to a flight of stairs. Ayonn stuck close. She could feel the hearts pumping behind the walls, could hear the foreign words carried on slight currents of wind and feel the vibrations through the floor. It was a matter of ignoring things, she knew. She'd never had her sight; in exchange, she'd gained three more senses. Sometimes it was overwhelming.

She let her mind slip into meditation, building up walls to keep out the messages air held for her. People and vibrations – well, she would rather know what was happening than blind herself completely. Lieutenant led her into a small room made of wood, letting her arm go. Ayonn took a step, rapped the wall, and scowled. Wood, she remembered, carried none of the properties of earth – she really was blind here.

Ayonn fumbled her way back to Lieutenant's heartbeat, barking her legs on a shin-high table in the middle of the room. She sharpened her awareness of Lieutenant, focusing on the outline the blood made as it traced through her body. Where Lieutenant stepped, Ayonn stepped. When the older woman whirled around, so did she – until she realized that there was no other heartbeat in the room.

The barked command was for her. And while she didn't understand it, Ayonn was sure enough of what it meant that she scuffed her way back to the little table. There, she sat down and started to meditate. Maybe, if she could just get in touch with her past lives – if she could get to the Spirit World – she would understand how she got here; maybe she would understand how to go home.

* * *

><p>Riza felt bad for shouting at the girl earlier. She was sitting by the table now, eyes closed and hands pressed together. Carrying a bowl of rice over to her, Riza touched the girl's arm. She wasn't as aware as she had been earlier – Edward had mentioned that she'd successfully navigated her way to the mess hall and found a cup without any apparent difficulty. Now she only seemed to register Riza, not the surroundings.<p>

Her hand found the bowl easily, and the chopsticks were apparently a welcome surprise. _"Ohashi,"_ Ayonn informed Riza. Riza found herself smiling.

"Chopsticks," she replied.

Ayonn patted the table. _"Teeburu."_

"Table."

She stood up. "Lieutenant Riza Hawkeye, _anata wa ishi wo motte imasu ka?"_

Riza frowned. It was a question, clearly, but the words were unfamiliar. Ayonn waved her arms, frustrated, and the tea in Riza's cup swirled around. A stiff wind started to blow, swirling around the small apartment. Riza jumped, putting down her tea and backing away from the table.

Realizing the effect she was having, Ayonn stilled herself. _"Ishi,"_ she murmured. _"Ishi…"_ The blind girl stood up and shuffled across the room, sliding her feet carefully in front of her. She walked into Riza's kitchen.

"Hey!" Riza said. "Get out of there!"

Ayonn ignored her, opening cupboards and digging through them by touch. She found the cupboard containing Riza's cutting boards. The girl pulled out the only stone object in the entire kitchen, shuffling back into the living room and sitting down at the table, muttering triumphantly, _"Ishi dess."_

Spinning the tablet toward Riza, Ayonn pressed her palm into it. Riza felt her eyes widen as the girl pulled her hand away, leaving a handprint in a solid piece of stone. _"Chikyuu mage,"_ Ayonn said in an explanatory tone. She passed her hand over the surface and it returned to normal.

"Okay, then," Riza said dazedly. "Whatever _chikyuu mage _is, I'm impressed."

Ayonn smiled and held out her hand, lighting a small flame. This time Riza scrambled away as the girl named what she was doing: _"Kasai mage."_

She demonstrated control over air and water (well, it was tea, but Riza suspected it was meant to show water), naming them _ea mage_ and _mizu mage_, respectively.

Riza scribbled the names down, meaning to show them to Mustang later.


	3. Chapter 3

As Ayonn's understanding of Amestrian grew, Edward found – to his surprise – that the blind girl was an impressively constant source of entertainment. At headquarters she didn't even seem blind. She had tried to explain why she could navigate so easily, but it had devolved into kicking the wall.

Still, she was up for almost anything, and had seemed to accept Al as a part of life. Ed hadn't seen her shoot fire like that first night again, but then he didn't know how to ask her. Lieutenant Colonel Maes Hughes had offered to take her in as well; once she understood the offer Ayonn acquiesced rapidly.

Now he watched her as she checked her plate with her chopsticks to find any food. Exasperated, she rapped the ceramic plate sharply. Whatever she'd done seemed to reassure her that there was nothing left. "Ed?"

"Yes?" He looked up. Edward was accustomed to hearing his name, but somehow he thought that he'd never heard it the way Ayonn said it before.

"More…more of…" Ayonn's voice trailed off, and she used her hands to shape a wedge in midair.

Al interrupted. "Quiche."

She nodded, blank eyes lighting up. "_Un_, quiche! Um, please." Hughes scooped up another piece and put it on her plate. She turned to him. "Thank you."

"You're welcome." The words were simple and easy, words that she knew. She was progressing awfully quickly, capable of holding simple conversations. He turned back toward Al, trying to disguise the feelings that leapt in him when her blind eyes skated over his. Ed wasn't even sure he could put a name to the swirling emotions in his chest.

Later that night, Ayonn's laugh sparkled in the room as Elysia tried to duck her touch. Al observed quietly that little Elysia was losing to Ayonn by a good margin. Ed couldn't help but agree even as he watched the blind girl navigate the room astoundingly quickly – stepping exactly where the child had.

Ayonn stopped for a moment, turning her head from side to side. She ran her hand over the wall, scowling, looking lost. Elysia poked her head out from the kitchen and laughed. The sound brought a smile to the older girl's face, but Ed noticed that it was shaky and uncertain. Getting off the couch, he extended his hand to her.

"Hey." Ed said it quietly, but she whirled to face him anyway. "Do you need a hand?"

She looked embarrassed for a moment, then swallowed the emotion and nodded. "Thank you." He extended his hand, and she took it with a grateful smile, positioning herself behind him and to his side, placing her hand on his shoulder. Ed paused for a minute, recognizing the unusual vulnerability, before they set off to the living room.

It was only a few seconds, but it felt like a voyage to Ed – one of those adventures that would be told and retold, something life-changing. He was more aware of his surroundings than he'd ever been before. Every step, every slight motion, brought with it a host of considerations. Would Ayonn, trailing behind him, crash into something? Was that bump on the floor something she might trip and fall over?

"You will not break me," she assured him dryly, perhaps sensing his trepidation. Ed blushed and sped up a little, careful to remain conscious of the area around him. As they walked into the living room, Ayonn released his arm and slipped forward on her own, striking out toward Hughes and his wife, seated on the couch. She slid her feet on the floor, Ed noticed – it made her gait into something light and graceful. Perching on the nearest open cushion, she smiled at Ed. "Thank you."

"You're welcome." The next words were an impulse, something Ed never had any intention of saying, but they popped out regardless. "Will you teach me?"

Ayonn cocked her head, birdlike. "Teach?"

Ed flushed again as he realized his error. She knew _lesson_ and _learn_, she knew a multitude of other words that she couldn't quite string into phrases and sentences yet, and she was a surprisingly quick learner – but Ed and Al had never brought up the word _teach_. He paused for a moment, finding a way to explain the word. "Lesson time. You learn. I teach."

"Teach." She mulled it over, silently shaping the word on her lips. "Te-ach." Ed sat patiently, waiting for the inevitable breakthrough. "Teach!" she shouted, face lighting up. _"Oshieru!"_

"Um, yeah. _Oshieru_." Ed smiled. "Will you teach me?"

The puzzle on her face was obvious. "Teach what?"

"How to be blind. How to move in the dark." A dark burst of worry blossomed inside of him. Would Ayonn think he was mocking her? Laughing at her disability?

The strange hitch in his breathing eased as she smiled at him. "Yes. I will."

* * *

><p>Al was confused as to the entire point of this exercise.<p>

Ed had barged into their room, where he'd been sitting and thinking (he did that a lot since he'd lost his body). Hollering something about how Ayonn was going to teach them to be blind, his older brother had pulled Al off the bed and into the living room. Ayonn had, indeed, been standing there with two blindfolds.

Ed had taken his eagerly, tying it around his eyes. Al had watched as Ayonn had moved around behind him, delicate fingers brushing his head as she searched for the knot. When she'd found it, she had untied it, silently offering Ed a thick, folded-over cloth to place beneath it. "I can't see anything," Ed complained.

"That is the point," Ayonn retorted. She'd quickly developed a dry, acerbic sense of humor, Al noticed. She offered the same pad-and-blindfold combination to him, waiting for the boys to obstruct their vision completely. When the blindfolds were on securely, she began her instruction.

"You should not step," she said firmly. "Ed – that is a lesson for you. Al, you should not step high." Al imagined her brow furrowing as she contemplated her next words. "For Ed, it will hurt if he hits his legs. It will not hurt Al, but he will break things if he steps high. You need to slide your feet."

Al did as ordered, and his brother's feet next to him made a shushing sound across the wooden floor. Ayonn's hands gripped his arm lightly, and she brought it up to waist level, stretching it out. "You are close to the wall," she said. "You need to be careful, or you will run into it and be hurt."

"How do you know?" he asked, curious.

He could hear the faintest trace of a laugh in her voice. "I ran into it and was hurt," she replied. "I know it will not hurt empty-you, but when you are not _kinzoku yoroi_, hitting walls will hurt."

A yelp from Ed, shuffling somewhere nearby, proved her point neatly. The pressure of her hands on his arm released, and she moved away with quick, padding footsteps, leaving Al to wonder what exactly _kinzoku yoroi_ meant.

* * *

><p>The notepad lying on Roy Mustang's desk held eight small words, four of them the same. <em>Chikyuu mage, kasai mage, ea mage, mizu mage<em>. He contemplated the list, Riza's explanation spinning around in his head. "She has some sort of elemental ability," his lieutenant had reported. "It's not alchemy – there were no transmutation circles involved with her demonstration. It seems to be innate."

Riza had hesitated before continuing, before confiding her deepest suspicion to him. "I believe she may be able to control someone's body. She is certainly aware of where people are; in my apartment, she was disoriented and confused, but she was able to track my movements. If she can sense where someone is – if she can control water – there's no reason to think she can't control blood."

Mustang leaned back in his chair, implications and uses of this potential new weapon falling into place.


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: Sorry this took me so long to finish! I like the ending of this chapter, though...tell me what you think!**

* * *

><p>Ayonn hated wood with a passion.<p>

At home, everything had been made of stone. She hadn't known anyone who didn't have at least a stone floor. But the Hughes family – their apartment was made all of wood. She'd never been so helpless before. Ayonn had to resort to the kind of methods her teachers had drilled into her, methods she had never learned naturally.

It wasn't so much that she hated wood as it was that she hated the true blindness it brought with it. Ayonn was confused about where she was half the time, and the other half she was confused as to how she'd gotten there. She'd tried going to the spirits for help, but they'd been closed off from her. She hadn't even been able to access the Avatar State.

She tried to avoid thinking about what that meant.

Spending most of her time at Eastern Headquarters was a good distraction; Ayonn wandered around, trying to find a secluded spot to practice her bending. Nine times out of ten, she got sidetracked by interesting vibrations in the walls around her. She'd run into Lieutenant once or twice and been sternly shepherded back to Colonel's office.

Oh, she knew those weren't their real names. Ed had explained the concept of rank until she'd been tempted to fry the chair under him, but she still didn't understand why anyone would introduce themselves, in a casual setting, using their military rank. Eventually, just to shut him up, she'd pointed first to Lieutenant, then to Colonel, and stated flatly, "Hawkeye. Mustang."

He'd nodded, relieved. Ayonn had gotten up and walked out of the room.

She'd come upon a previously unknown part of the massive complex. Things like boulders pounded the walls, and people shouted, stomping the floor with enough force that she could feel it even all the way out here.

She ran to the door the vibrations were coming from, feeling a bubble of happiness well up in her chest. There _were _benders here! They just kept their abilities confined to this practice arena in Headquarters.

Ayonn burst into the room and came to a dead stop.

* * *

><p>Ed was busy taking out his frustrations on the alchemy practice room when Ayonn ran in. She stopped just shy of the huge pit he'd created, causing him to catch his breath in terror.<p>

"What are you doing?" she asked. Ed was caught off guard by her voice – it sounded little and lost.

"I'm practicing," he said gently. Transmuting a bridge over his chasm, he walked over to her and took her hand. "What are you doing here?"

Her face crumpled in on itself. Ed knew she'd been ripped from her home and family, but he'd never seen her look this abjectly miserable. "I thought…I thought you were a bender."

That was a word he hadn't taught her. While her mastery of the language was almost complete, she was unexpectedly prone to mashing words together and creating nonsensical phrases. Most of the time it kept Ed and Al in stitches, but today, faced with Ayonn's pain, it didn't seem nearly so funny. "I don't know what a bender is, Ayonn," he told her.

If you'd asked Ed what would have happened next, he would have guessed that she'd break down crying. He certainly wouldn't have guessed that Ayonn's face would break into a smile. "I can show you," she offered. "If you show me what you were doing."

That was a fair enough trade. They hadn't discussed alchemy at all during their lessons. Ayonn knew, theoretically, about the rank of State Alchemist (that epically long discussion about rank versus names came to mind), but she was under the impression that a State Alchemist was a kind of specialized soldier.

In a way, Ed supposed, she was right. He was too curious about 'bender', though, to worry about disillusioning her now.

"I'm an alchemist," he began.

* * *

><p>Two hours later, Ayonn was thoroughly boggled and had decided she would never, ever try alchemy. Ed had walked her through equivalent exchange and transmutation; he'd scratched transmutation circles in the dirt even as he explained that some alchemists didn't need them. (That, at least, made sense. Firebenders didn't need an elemental source, did they?) He'd borrowed a radio, smashed it, and repaired it right in front of her.<p>

Ed definitely deserved her respect. Alchemists went through much more training than benders did, and apparently – she wasn't completely sure on this point – alchemy wasn't an innate ability. You had to have some sort of teacher, even if it was just a book.

He'd be an interesting sparring partner, she knew. The skills alchemy fostered were vastly different from those of bending.

Once he was done, he sat on the ground and faced her, tapping his automail fingers. "Will you stop that?" she asked. "Tap with the other hand if you want, but that one's giving me a headache."

He stopped, but still sat with his head cocked up toward her. "Are you going to show me your bender?"

Ayonn laughed – she couldn't help herself. "I'm a bender," she started, mirroring his lecture. "The act itself is called bending. So yes, I'm going to show you my bending." Pausing for a minute, figuring out how to start, she said, "Bending is something you're born with. It's an elemental power. Traditionally, people are classified into four nations based on their bending."

"Is everyone a bender?" he interrupted.

She shook her head. "No. There's a certain look to different nations, too, but that's become more muddled since people started mixing." She paused. "Or so I'm told. Anyway, benders are born into one of four powers – water, earth, fire, or air. Each bending art prizes different strengths, but knowing all four styles makes you nearly impossible to defeat."

"What kind of bending do you do?"

Laughing, Ayonn swatted at him. "I'm getting there, Elric. One person is born with the powers of all four elements, and their job is to keep balance in the world. That person is called the Avatar."

He caught on quickly; she had to give him that. If she could see him, she imagined she'd see wide eyes, and behind those, a churning brain. "You aren't – are you?"

She didn't answer him, choosing instead to shoot a pillar of earth up between them. "Earthbending – _chikyuu mage_." Flames roasted the pillar. "Firebending. _Kasai mage_." Air extinguished the heat. "Airbending. _Ea mage_." Finally, she doused the pillar with water collected from the air, freezing the spout as it hit. "Waterbending. _Mizu mage_."

* * *

><p>Ed had to admit to himself that he was a little bit in shock. Ayonn's gift – bending – was more impressive than any alchemy he'd ever seen.<p>

The scientist part of him wondered what else she could do with it. The part of him that liked having a friend his own age squelched the scientist, stomping hard on it for good measure.

He cleared his throat. "That's amazing."

She looked happier than he'd ever seen her. The secret must have been a weight on her shoulders, and – _oh_. "That explains how you see!" The puzzle had been nagging at him ever since she'd made a run for that stupid cup, ever since she'd looked so lost in Hughes' apartment. "You see through the earth! That's why you get lost in Hughes' apartment – it's made of wood!"

"Yes." Ayonn scowled. "I never went anywhere made of wood at home. And you people keep shoving me in cars. The vibrations move too fast to see anything, and I get sick." She perked up a bit. "But I can feel the water in bodies, and I can tell where people are. So if I feel someone sitting, I can be pretty sure there's space to sit near them."

"Fascinating," Ed breathed. "And that's how you knew Al's suit is empty."

"What is wrong with him?" she asked.

He shrugged. "Alchemy."

The look on Ayonn's face said plainly that she didn't believe him, but she let the matter lie. She stomped the boulders he'd ripped out of the ground back into his pit, and they walked out of the practice room. Throwing a hand out, she stopped him in his tracks and turned to him. "Ed," she said hesitantly, "would you spar with me sometime?"

"Of course," he answered, and with his head so close to hers, he thought for a minute that they might kiss.


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: I am so sorry this has been so long in coming. I was on vacation with no computer and school has been crazy...I hope you'll forgive me!**

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><p>Riza knocked on the door of one of the practice rooms. The thuds coming from it had been enough to reliably inform her that one or both of the Elric boys was inside – and where the Elric boys went, Ayonn went too. Not pausing to wait for an answer, she threw the door open and paused at the sight within.<p>

Little, blind Ayonn was not sitting against the wall where Riza had expected her to be. Instead, she was…dancing, almost, inside a vortex of flames. Ed threw himself at her, automail sharpening, and she batted him aside with a quick movement of her arm. Riza cleared her throat, and the two stilled, flames dying away and automail restoring itself.

"Hello." Ayonn seemed calm, in control. Nothing like Riza had expected from the fire dancing around her a moment before. "Are you here to practice?"

"No," Riza said. The word was like a key in a lock, unfreezing her lips and allowing her to speak the message she bore. "Colonel Mustang wishes to see Ayonn in his office." She caught the look Ed and Ayonn exchanged – well, the look Ed shot at Ayonn and the pale girl's careful, almost invisible shrug. It was odd for a blind person, but Riza had learned to ignore some oddities from their newest addition.

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><p>Standing in Colonel Mustang's office, Ayonn felt suddenly unkempt. She was sure that she was covered in dirt and scorch marks from her skirmish with Ed earlier; she could almost feel Riza's disapproving gaze. <em>At least it isn't blood<em>, she thought wryly.

Mustang finished scratching on his paper and rose to greet her. He gestured her to a chair, and Ayonn sat nervously. These people had been kind, yes, but it felt like they were coming to the price of kindness. The colonel came out from behind his desk and sat in a chair across from her. He held something out, and Ayonn took it by reflex.

"What is this?"

His voice was humorless. "Paper."

She resisted the temptation to incinerate his precious paper. "Yes, I know. Is there anything special about it?" The man shifted in his chair, feet shuffling on the stone ground. It was enough vibration to give Ayonn a quick view of his face – she identified the fleeting expression as curiosity. His heartbeat picked up. So there was something important about the paper. "It contains a list of four terms you spoke to Lieutenant Hawkeye four weeks ago: chikyuu mage, kasai mage, ea mage, and mizu mage." She tapped her foot, waiting for the man to get to the point, and the vibrations fixed her with a stare. "Define these, please."

Ayonn shrugged. "Earthbending, firebending, airbending, waterbending."

If he'd been a firebender, he would have had smoke curling out his mouth. "Thank you. Now define those."

"It's…elemental manipulation." She picked her words carefully, feeling like she was walking over a field of explosives. "Ancient arts that control the four elements."

Mustang leaned forward. "And you control all four. Is this typical?"

She hesitated. For some reason, Colonel Mustang made her nervous; there was an air to the man that said he knew no limits when it came to power. Her position as the Avatar wasn't something she was eager to give him, but she found herself reluctant to tell a lie. He had, after all, been good to her by his own lights. Eventually, she tapped her foot, found his eyes, and told him firmly, "No."

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><p>If Ayonn had been able to see, she would have backpedaled immediately at the look in Roy Mustang's eyes. He paused for a moment, carefully considering this new revelation. He had in his hands a powerful weapon, one with more ability than most of her own people. He had something rogue alchemists had never before seen, something they wouldn't know how to fight.<p>

The little blind girl with the icy white eyes was a big step in becoming Fuhrer.

Mustang worded his next question carefully. "Are you able to sense the water inside bodies?"

Slowly, hesitantly, she nodded.

"Are you able to control that water?"

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><p>Ayonn sat rigid in her seat, mind reeling. It had taken a huge war and ten thousand years for her people to discover bloodbending. This…<em>monster<em> had thought of it in less than two months. "Of course," she said quietly, skirting around the question's intent. "It's how I heal."

She could practically feel the waves of disappointment coming off him. "Is your control strictly limited to healing?"

This, she would lie about. There was no doubt about it. Ayonn didn't even hesitate before she said, "Yes." Some small part of her cringed at the thought of the spirits sending other waterbenders to this world, waterbenders without the responsibility and morals of the Avatar. It would be catastrophe, a waking nightmare.

_Don't send more, Raava. Don't!_

And when Mustang dismissed her from his office, she ran straight for the practice room where she'd last felt Ed and Al.

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><p>Al was more surprised than Ed when Ayonn ran into him. They'd been walking back from the practice room after setting everything back in order; the girl had raced around the corner and bounced off his chest with a clang. She sat, dazed and clutching her head, on the ground.<p>

"Are you all right?" Al asked, bending down to make sure there was no bleeding. "What happened?"

"Mustang is a monster," Ayonn whispered with unexpected ferocity. "A _monster_." She buried her head in Al's iron chest and started to cry, thin little sobs escaping like hiccups. "He wants me to be his own personal bloodbender."

Ed and Al shared a confused glance. "A bloodbender?" Ed asked, sinking into a crouch next to the crying girl. "Is that even possible?"

Ayonn looked up at him and nodded miserably. "It's forbidden. Completely taboo – but possible." She looked away from him and took a shuddering breath, stopping her tears. "I – it's a perverted form of healing. Instead of encouraging the body to work better, faster, bloodbending forces it to move in the way the bloodbender wants it to. It's the ultimate form of control."

Ed got up, eyes blazing and automail arm already growing a blade. "I'm going to kill him."


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: Sorry for the wait! I'd love to hear what you think of this one. Also: Mustang is not intended to be a jerk here. He's a guy who's very deeply focused on his goal, and willing to use whatever tools pop up.**

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><p>The only thing in Ed's mind was fiery, irrational <em>fury<em>. The idea that Mustang would ask Ayonn to do anything like bloodbending pushed a button inside of him he hadn't even known was there. Besides, a little part of him pointed out, it was terrifying to think that Ayonn had that kind of power. Better to bash out any ideas of it before it really took root in Mustang's head.

And then Al was there, pushing him against the wall, holding him back. "Brother, don't." The look in the helmet's eyes was as neutral as ever, but Ed almost thought he could see a softening of the edges. "All it will do is let him know she lied." And he had to admit that Al had a point. Trying to kill Mustang would only reinforce the idea that Ayonn was a powerful weapon.

The soft hand on his arm made him look down. Ayonn was still seated on the floor, white hair swirling in a soft breeze around her. "It's all right," she said quietly. "It's…cultural, the taboo. I shouldn't have expected him to know anything about it."

_Cultural._ "Is that kind of thing only limited to waterbenders?"

"Yes." Ayonn fiddled with the hem of her shirt. Ed got the sense that she picked her next words carefully. "Every kind of bending has a…a subspecialty, you might say. Waterbending has two – healing and bloodbending, which are the same thing turned to different purposes. A good earthbender can bend metal, and a skilled firebender can bend lightning." She smiled humorlessly. "Makes a great signal."

Ed rolled the idea of subspecialties around in his mind. "So it's like alchemy, sort of. Most alchemists specialize in one transmutation circle, instead of using lots of different ones."

Ayonn shrugged. "Sort of, I guess. But you have to be very, very good at the basic bending before you can move on to more advanced substances, and learning your element's subspecialty doesn't lock you out of the element itself." She pushed herself up in a fluid motion. "I'm going to find somewhere to lie down and take a nap."

Ed had long since realized that "take a nap" was Ayonn's code for sitting with her hands pressed together and her eyes shut. She _might_ be sleeping, but it looked very different from the way she slept at night. (He should know – Mrs. Hughes had sent him in to wake her up enough times.) But it didn't seem to hurt anything, and she always seemed calmer afterwards, so he nodded and watched her walk away.

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><p>Ayonn was quietly panicking. She trusted Ed and Al, but they were technically Colonel's subordinates. He could make them tell him everything she'd said. And a man like Colonel would realize two things: one, that she'd lied to him about bloodbending; and two, she'd neglected to mention airbending to the boys. He'd wonder why, she'd be dragged back into his office, and she'd have to keep her cool through hours of questioning. Maybe even something worse – Ayonn wasn't sure how they did things like that here.<p>

She found a small alcove and slipped into it, bending the stone so she'd be hidden. Settling into the familiar posture of meditation, Ayonn closed her eyes and started breathing deeply, evenly, letting her body slip into a rhythm.

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><p>Korra sat down across from her next life, looking at the doorless little chamber they were enclosed in. Probably created by Ayonn, Korra decided. The girl said quietly, "Hello? Is anyone there?"<p>

"I'm right here," Korra answered at the same volume.

The other girl's eyes popped open, and she frowned. "I can't see you, but then I can't feel you either, so you're not physical. What's the capital city of the Earth Kingdom?"

Korra eyed Ayonn. "Ba Sing Se."

The next Avatar beamed, brighter than anything Korra had seen even on Bolin's face. "You are Korra!" She reached out, hand patting the air, and Korra took it. Ayonn immediately latched on, holding tightly and smiling. "It's so good to see you!" She paused. "Um, figuratively speaking."

Korra smiled halfheartedly. Avatars didn't call their past lives up just to chat. She waited in silence for Ayonn to elaborate on her situation. The girl didn't disappoint. "Korra, did Raava ever…send you anywhere else?"

"Anywhere else?" Korra thought for a minute. "No."

Ayonn's face crumpled. "I don't know where I am," she confessed, panic seeping through her voice. "I can't reach her – this is the first time I've made _any_ contact with the Spirit World – and I'm not at home, and I don't know what I'm supposed to do, and Korra, I'm scared!"

Korra looked at her reincarnation. She'd be panicking too. If only Aang were here; he'd been great at giving advice, much better than Korra ever was. Korra chose her words carefully, trying to be as helpful as she could. "I'm not sure where you are, but if Raava is blocked off it's because you're supposed to be doing this alone. As to what you're here to do, well, the Avatar keeps balance, right? This world must not have it." Korra gave the other girl's hand a final squeeze as she felt herself start to fade away.

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><p>Ayonn stared at the floor underneath her. Talking to Korra had been reassuring in some ways and terrifying in others. Knowing that she could reach Korra – that someone from home was available to her – brought a huge measure of peace. On the other hand, the prospect of helping this unfamiliar world attain balance was incredibly daunting.<p>

But she was the Avatar. She'd just have to do it.

Ayonn stuck her chin up and restored the wall to its original position.

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><p>Mustang sat in his office, staring at the crumpled sheet of paper. She'd lied to him about controlling blood. He was sure of it. He just couldn't prove anything.<p>

Until she decided to tell him the truth, he might as well put her to work. Besides, it was long past time the Elric boys had something productive to do. Mustang called Riza in. "Are there any leads on Solf Kimblee?"

She frowned. "We had a reported sighting in the south, sir."

Perfect. "Send the Elric boys after him, and tell them they can take the girl." Mustang looked down at his paperwork. "Whether or not they capture him, it should be an interesting test of capabilities."

He wasn't quite sure what to make of the look on Riza's face as she left the room.


End file.
